Data can be collected using simple random technique and Structural questionnaire is the basic tool for

measuring export potential. Data from developing countries were collected through secondary sources
and data were analysis by using Gen-Stat-statistical software. The sources of the data are various issues
of Economic Survey of Pakistan, database of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEDA), publication of
International Trade Centre (ITC), annual reports of State bank of Pakistan, database of Trade
Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), publications and databases of Federal Bureau of Statistics,
trade polices from Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan, databases of Ministry of Finance, etc. Literature
covers the research papers and studies available on the subject on internet and journals and libraries.
The study is an attempt to present comparative analysis of the various SME based economies in the
world specifically from Asia.

Primary sources
Definition:
Primary sources are original materials. They are from the time period involved and have not
been filtered through interpretation or evaluation. Primary sources are original materials on
which other research is based. They are usually the first formal appearance of results in
physical, print or electronic format. They present original thinking, report a discovery, or
share new information.
Examples include:
Artifacts (e.g. coins, plant specimens, fossils, furniture, tools, clothing, all from the time
under study);
Audio recordings (e.g. radio programs)
Diaries;
Internet communications on email, listservs;
Interviews (e.g., oral histories, telephone, e-mail);
Journal articles published in peer-reviewed publications;
Letters;
Newspaper articles written at the time;
Original Documents (i.e. birth certificate, will, marriage license, trial transcript);
Patents;
Photographs
Proceedings of Meetings, conferences and symposia;
Records of organizations, government agencies (e.g. annual report, treaty, constitution,
government document);
Speeches;
Survey Research (e.g., market surveys, public opinion polls);
Video recordings (e.g. television programs);
Works of art, architecture, literature, and music (e.g., paintings, sculptures, musical scores,
buildings, novels, poems).
Web site.
Secondary sources
Definition:
Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources. Generally, they are
accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. They are interpretations and
evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather
commentary on and discussion of evidence. However, what some define as a secondary
source, others define as a tertiary source. Context is everything.
Examples include:
Bibliographies (also considered tertiary);
Biographical works;
Commentaries, criticisms;
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias (also considered tertiary);
Histories;
Journal articles (depending on the disciple can be primary);
Magazine and newspaper articles (this distinction varies by discipline);
Monographs, other than fiction and autobiography;
Textbooks (also considered tertiary);
Web site (also considered primary).
Tertiary sources
Definition:
Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and
secondary sources.
Almanacs;
Bibliographies (also considered secondary);
Chronologies;
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias (also considered secondary);
Directories;
Fact books;
Guidebooks;
Indexes, abstracts, bibliographies used to locate primary and secondary sources;
Manuals;
Textbooks (also be secondary).